What I Love About Brody Lately

I know I have been pretty slack on doing regular posts about what the boys are up to these days.  Life is pretty busy with this little first grader and preschooler, and I especially want to remember some of the little things Brody is doing lately.  It seems like he is changing daily as he is developing his own little character and personality.  He is so active, and he can really tire us out some days, but we wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.  Here are a few “stories” that I need to document about Brody:

·         Talking – As you know, Brody wasn’t my early talker.  His big brother was the talker who was always at least a year ahead of his age group in this development.  He was talking in sentences by 18 months.  Brody is more of my physically active child.  He just loves to always be doing something.  He doesn’t like to sit down for very long at a time to read or watch television.  However, in the last few weeks, he has been making big changes.  He has definitely started to take an interest in using his words to express his self, and he does a great job at it. He is very articulate so the words he does say are very easy to understand.  Some of his favorite words end in “p” like “up” and “help.”  He likes to really stress the “p” sound, and giggles when he spits on you.  Ha!  He tends to like action words like saying “up” and “down” while raising his arms up in the air and then touching his feet or the floor.  He likes to say “on” and “off” while playing with the light switches.  This morning, he was yelling “Help!” when Daddy’s fire pager went off a couple of times while Daddy was taking Evan to school.  He uses “help” a lot to ask for our assistance in doing stuff he can’t do like opening up packages (yes, sometimes he ask us to open stuff we don’t want him to get into).  He says some phrases like “I eat” and “I want to get down” and "I poop" and "I want that."  He still signs while saying the word “more” when he wants more to eat or drink.  He says “yes” and “no” while nodding or shaking his head correctly in answering our questions, and I am thankful he actually likes saying “yes” more than “no.” He is also learning his colors and seems to like saying "green" the best.  I'm not sure if that is going to be his favorite color or not.  Evan's first color he learned to say and recognize was orange but green is his second favorite color so they both seem to have an appreciation for green. 

Brody got some cute little choo-choo trains for doing such a great job talking and using the potty the last couple of weeks.  He has gone number 2 on the potty several times!  No, these aren't Chuggington trains.  Target doesn't seem to carry them so we just bought him some cute little Target brand wooden trains to tide him over until Christmas. 

·         New Likes – Brody has developed a very intense love of trains lately, and he has found his first real favorite television show.  No, it is not that well-known blue train either.  Neither of my boys ever really got into Thomas.  I think they didn’t like the slower pace of that show with the narrated voice telling the story and doing the voices.  Brody has been loving the Disney Junior show Chuggington so that is going to make Christmas shopping a little easier.  As soon as he gets up in the morning, he comes in our room and wants us to turn the TV on so he can watch it while we get ready for the day.  As soon as the music starts, he starts moving his arms and doing the “chug-a-chug-a” train motion and then says “toot toot” instead of “choo-choo” at the appropriate part of the song.  Chuggington is just a faster paced cartoon with brightly colored trains but still has a similar plot revolving around talking trains living in a train depot town.  We have stored up several episodes on the DVR for him which are so much cheaper than going out and buying the DVDs for him.  I really am glad he has found something that really sparks his interest because I think that is especially good for little boys. 

The characters from Chuggington.  The theme song is really catchy too. 

·         New Games – Brody’s newest favorite game is “rock, paper, scissors” although for him, I call it “rock, rock, rock” because he only does rock as he repeatedly pounds his little clenched fist onto his palm begging you to join him.  His big brother is responsible for this one.  Big brother started doing “rock, paper, scissors” with him, and big brother has even added “shoes” as another option to the game.  So big brother will either slam his fist down, put one open palm down for paper, make finger scissors, or hold up his shoe clad foot.  Shoe really only beats paper because scissors could mutilate a shoe and a rock can get into your shoe and really be a pain.  Ha! 

·         Picture Posing – Brody loves to have his picture taken although he does still like to take pictures too.  He loves to cheese anytime he sees a camera.  This week, he decided he wanted to start a new tradition of posing for a picture every day before he goes to school.  This started on Monday when I wanted a quick picture of him dressed up for his school pictures.  Then, he proceeded to run to the same spot on Wednesday and Friday and pose for me.  He is such a stinker! 

Monday's Picture

Wednesday's Picture

Friday's Picture

And an especially cute picture of Brody's cheese face when Mommy was trying to take a picture of big brother wearing his new Ghost Buster's shirt.  

·         Other Things to Love – Although Brody still has a pretty big temper with a short fuse and can be pretty physically aggressive when he doesn't get his way, he is also a really sweet and lovable little man.  He loves to cuddle, give “tisses,” blow “tisses,” and give big hugs.  I get extra special love from Brody on days when I wear something that is “silky” so you can imagine I like to do that.  As soon as I get dressed in the morning, he’ll be stuck to my side like glue just rubbing the fabric with his little fingers.  Yes, it is pretty funny too.  He also enjoys giving the biggest hugs to his big brother.  Just this morning, when big brother came to tell us bye before he left for school, Brody was still lying in our bed because big brother has to leave for school early.  Brody reached out with his arms spread wide open wanting a hug and then he wrapped his little arms around Evan and just squeezed like he didn't want to let go.  Later, when I am heading out the door and Daddy is preparing to take Brody to school, Brody will make kissing noises and want bye bye kisses and will then stand in the doorway and wave and tell me bye bye and blow me kisses repeatedly until I pull out of the garage.  It is going to break my heart if he ever stops doing this!